About this Event
Natalie Livingstone, joined in conversation by Daniel Finkelstein, will be speaking about her new book which marks the 80th anniversary of the Nuremberg Trials – a revelatory history that sheds new light on the most famous trials of the twentieth century through the stories of eight extraordinary women whose significance has long been overlooked.
Some of these women are familiar names: journalist Rebecca West, sent to Nuremberg to write for The New Yorker; cabaret star turned anti-fascist war correspondent Erika Mann – daughter of Germany’s most famous writer; and British painter Laura Knight, commissioned to capture the atmosphere of Courtroom 600 in what became an iconic image, which now hangs at the Imperial War Museum in London. Others have been largely forgotten. Among them are the Soviet interpreter Tatiana Stupnikova, who navigated political dangers unimaginable to those in the Western Allied delegations; Hungarian countess Ingeborg Kálnoky found herself presiding over a guest house in which perpetrators and survivors of the Nazi’s worst crimes lived side by side; French communist and survivor of Auschwitz, Marie-Claude Vaillant-Couturier whose two hour testimony shook the courtroom and the world beyond it. Together their stories reveal a Nuremberg rarely seen, a city of surveillance, dark allure and political tension, heavy drinking and moral ambiguity, where love affairs, trauma and the first tremors of the Cold War unfolded alongside the pursuit of justice.
Natalie will reflect on her journey to uncover these women’s lives, weaving together unseen and forgotten materials to create a moving, landmark book that reshapes our understanding of this critical and high stakes moment of post-war justice, and the women who helped define it.
About the Speakers
Natalie Livingstone is a Sunday Times bestselling author who graduated with a first-class degree in history from Christ’s College, Cambridge in 1998. She began her career as a feature writer at the Daily Express and now contributes to Tatler, Harper’s Bazaar, US Vogue, Elle, The Times and Mail on Sunday. Her first book, The Mistresses of Cliveden, was published in 2015, while her second book, The Women of Rothschild, was published in 2021. Natalie is also the Founder and Chairman of Cliveden Literary Festival.
Lord Daniel Finkelstein is a British journalist and opinion writer. A former executive editor of The Times, he continues to write for the paper. He has been Political Columnist of the Year four times and is the author of the acclaimed family memoir Hitler, Stalin, Mum and Dad (2023). He was appointed to the House of Lords in 2013.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
The Wiener Holocaust Library, 29 Russell Square, London, United Kingdom
GBP 0.00
